Author Archives: Dana Pico

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The shutdowns are about more than just missing some Christmas presents

While I have noted the complaints of Lexington restaurateurs in response to Governor Andy Beshear’s (D-KY) three-week indoor dining ban, Kentucky isn’t the only place in which government’s over-zealous response to COVID-19 is destroying businesses and throwing people out of work. Mayor Jim Kenney (D-Philadelphia) has done even worse. From The Philadelphia Inquirer:

Six-week shutdown could mean a ‘year without Christmas’ for Philly businesses

by Sam Wood and Katie Park | November 18, 2020

Beleaguered business owners and city residents, who had reconfigured their work lives to survive the pandemic’s first wave, latched onto a now-ubiquitous sentiment on Tuesday: Hang on. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.

The City of Philadelphia imposed new business restrictions on Monday that will go into effect at the end of the week. Sectors of the local economy will be required to shut down or severely curtail operations until at least Jan. 1.

Until New years Day? Even Governor Beshear only ordered closure for three weeks, at which point he could, conceivably, reissue the restrictions, while Mr Kenney decided he’d just destroy the rest of the year.

“For millions of people, this could be the year without a Christmas,” said Stephen Mullin, principal at Econsult Solutions and a former city director of commerce during the Rendell administration. “We’ll see unemployment bouncing up significantly again.”

The poor will be hit disproportionately as minimum wage jobs in retail, hospitality, and restaurants disappear, he predicted. The next six weeks will be tougher than in the spring and will probably endure into the new year. And businesses are pushing back and taking their complaints directly to City Hall.

With a salary of $218,000, Mr Kenney isn’t worried that COVID-19 shutdowns will put him in the poorhouse; that’s reserved for the working class people. He’s been in city government for most of his adult life, spending 23 years as a city councilman before being elected mayor; government is really the only thing he knows. Being on the wrong side of government edicts and regulations? That’s something he does not know.

The shutdown order comes at a critical time. It’s only with the holiday shopping season that many retailers begin to generate their best sales of the year. The order also puts a kibosh on Christmas parties and the peak of tourism in Philadelphia.

Translation: Jeff Bezos will get even richer, as more and more people will be shopping online, while ‘brick-and-mortar’ stores will suffer, many completely failing, and their employees will be laid off from jobs which will never return.[1]Restaurants are frequent business failures, which are followed by subsequent restaurant start-ups. But in the current economic and regulatory climate, the next wave of restaurant start ups will be … Continue reading Property owners will not be paid the rent they are due, which means that some property maintenance will not get done.

There’s a lot more at the original, including noting that Center City shops have lost a tremendous amount of business, because telecommuting has dramatically reduced the number of office workers. Office occupancy, the story stated, is down 85% from prior to the outbreak.

But this personal story is the one which really needs to be quoted:

Fran Cassidy, general manager of the Sporting Club at the Bellevue, was furious at the shutdown orders, which he considers unnecessarily draconian.

Business at the luxury fitness center had already crashed to 50% of its pre-pandemic level, Cassidy said. Of his 4,200 members, just 2,000 had returned. Though he believes there “hasn’t been a single case of COVID-19 among his clients,” he will have to issue pink slips to the Sporting Club’s entire staff.

“They’re devastated. How can you not be? It’s the holiday season. We had to tell 90 employees they’d be laid off,” Cassidy said. “In eight or nine days, it’ll be Thanksgiving. And that’s the news we had to deliver.”

Perhaps ninety employees from one business makes more of an impact than twenty million people on unemployment. Twenty million is a number that starts to fall outside of people’s consciousness, but ninety, that’s 45 to 50 homes. Where I lived in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, I can see that as the entire street from my former house to the beginning of the street. That’s a number of houses that I could see, every day, on my way home from work. That’s a number that I can visualize, a number of houses I could see and recognize, a number of houses in which I knew or at least recognized people.

The street on which my family lived in Mt Sterling, when I was growing up? There are fewer than fifty houses on the entire street.

And that’s a number of houses that I could see dark, as they had to conserve electricity,[2]Many states have banned utility shutoffs for non-payment due to the economic crisis, but eventually that will end, and eventually people will have to repay their back bills. that’s a number of houses I could see having potatoes and beans for supper one night, and beans and potatoes the next, because the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), what used to be called Food Stamps, doesn’t really feed a family all that well.

What happens when the hot water heater fails? A no-eviction order means that the tenants can’t be put out on the street, but can a landlord who has not been receiving his rent be forced to repair or replace it if he has no money? A no-foreclosure order might mean that a family can’t be evicted if they haven’t been able to pay their mortgage, but if they have lost their jobs, can they afford a new hot water heater? A quick look at Lowe’s website showed it’s least expensive hot water heater cost $319.00.

In Pennsylvania, if your automobile insurance lapses, the insurance company is required, by law, to report it to the state, and your license plates are immediately suspended for a minimum of ninety days, unless you can present proof that you kept your insurance by contracting with another company before the old insurance lapsed. If you have an insurance payment of $300 due, and you don’t have it, too bad, so sad, must suck to be you, but your plates are suspended. Since the Commonwealth stopped issuing license plate stickers and went to automatic scanners in patrol cars, the police will see you if you are driving with expired or suspended plates.

Very few of the elites, and big city mayors and state governors are most certainly among the elites, really understand what it is like to be poor, what it is like to live paycheck-to-paycheck, and how even a single setback can throw people into a deep hole. The Federal reserve reported, in 2019:

  • If faced with an unexpected expense of $400, 61 percent of adults say they would cover it with cash, savings, or a credit card paid off at the next statement — a modest improvement from the prior year. Similar to the prior year, 27 percent would borrow or sell something to pay for the expense, and 12 percent would not be able to cover the expense at all.
  • Seventeen percent of adults are not able to pay all of their current month’s bills in full. Another 12 percent of adults would be unable to pay their current month’s bills if they also had an unexpected $400 expense that they had to pay

Perhaps the math are too complicated for the elites, but $400 is a full week’s gross pay for someone earning $10.00 an hour, but Mayor Kenney is throwing exactly those people out of work not for a week, but for six weeks. Doing the more complicated math, adding in the 7.65% Social Security and Medicare withholding, Pennsylvania’s 3.07% state income tax withholding, and Philly’s 3.8712% wage tax for city residents, a person needs to be paid $11.53 per hour to take home $400 for a forty hour week.

COVID-19 is serious, and in some cases — not many — can be fatal. But poverty is serious, and unemployment can be fatal in itself. For the people who needn’t fear the economic consequences of shutdown orders themselves, it’s quite easy to say that these shutdowns are necessary, and something through which we just have to fight. But for the people who do bear the consequences of the shutdowns, it’s more than just losing Thanksgiving dinner due to gathering restriction orders, more than no presents under the Christmas tree, it’s a big government boot stomping into a life already lived at the hard edge of survival.
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Thanks to Robert Stacy McCain for the link!
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Cross-posted on RedState.

References

References
↑1 Restaurants are frequent business failures, which are followed by subsequent restaurant start-ups. But in the current economic and regulatory climate, the next wave of restaurant start ups will be long delayed.
↑2 Many states have banned utility shutoffs for non-payment due to the economic crisis, but eventually that will end, and eventually people will have to repay their back bills.
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Another draconian decree from the Pennsylvania Soviet Socialist Republic

The Department of Health of the Pennsylvania Soviet Socialist Republic has issued yet another draconian decree:

Did you catch that. Secretary of Health Dr Richard Levine[1]Dr Levine is a male who is so delusional that he thinks he is female, and goes by the name ‘Rachel.’ In its continuing mission to normalize transgenderism, the credentialed media always … Continue reading is ordering Pennsylvanians that they must wear face masks in their own homes if anyone who does not live there enters the residence.

One has to ask: just how do Governor Tom Wolf (D-PA) and Secretary Levine plan to enforce this order? Will the Philadelphia Police knock on row house doors if an officer spots an unfamiliar vehicle parked out front, just to make certain everyone inside is masked up? Will the police in Harrisburg conduct random checks, especially on Thanksgiving day, ready to confiscate drumsticks and arrest the entire family?

Pennsylvania has made violation of Dr Levine’s orders a criminal offense:

Administrative Code of 1929, 71 P. S. § 1409, states that:

Every person who violates any order or regulation of the Department of Health, or who resists or interferes with any officer or agent thereof in the performance of his duties in accordance with the regulations and orders of the Department of Health, shall, upon conviction thereof in a summary proceeding before a justice of the peace, alderman, or magistrate of the county wherein such violation or offense is committed, be sentenced to pay a fine of not less than ten ($10.00) dollars and costs nor more than fifty ($50.00) dollars and costs, such fine to be paid to the county in which the violation or offense is committed. In default of payment of such fine and costs the offender shall be sentenced to be confined in the proper county jail for a period of thirty days.

The Pennsylvania Disease Prevention and Control Law of 1955 35 P.S. § 521.20(a):

Any person who violates any of the provisions of this act or any regulation shall, for each offense, upon conviction thereof in a summary proceeding before any magistrate, alderman or justice of the peace in the county wherein the offense was committed, be sentenced to pay a fine of not less than twenty-five dollars ($25) and not more than three hundred dollars ($300), together with costs, and in default of payment of the fine and costs, to be imprisoned in the county jail for a period not to exceed thirty (30) days.

27 Pa. Code § 27.8(a):

A person who violates any provision of the [Disease Prevention and Control Act of 1955] shall, for each offense, upon conviction thereof in a summary proceeding before a district justice in the county wherein the offense was committed, be sentenced to pay a fine of not less than $25 and not more than $300, together with costs, and in default of payment of the fine and costs, shall be imprisoned in the county jail for a period not to exceed 30 days.

Lubyanka Prison in Moscow.

Note: a criminal trial is not required, but a “summary proceeding” is sufficient to fine you or lock you up!

Will the Secretary send you to Lubyanka prison? A summary proceeding, meaning that there is no trial by jury, and you can be locked up for up to a month? Not just no, but Hell no!

I no longer live in the Keystone State. Were I subject to Pennsylvania state laws, I would be in violation, this weekend as my daughter will be visiting the farm from her house in Lexington, and again on Thanksgiving day, when we will be having dinner at her house. We will not be in violation of Kentucky’s indoor gatherings restrictions, in that there will be only two households present and fewer than eight people there, and the mandatory mask order does not apply in individual homes. I’d like to say that I’d be in violation of it, but I won’t.

References

References
↑1 Dr Levine is a male who is so delusional that he thinks he is female, and goes by the name ‘Rachel.’ In its continuing mission to normalize transgenderism, the credentialed media always refer to him as ‘Rachel,’ and no longer note that he is ‘transgender. The First Street Journal, in accordance with its Stylebook, does not go along with such stupidity, and always refers to people by their biological sex and proper name.
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The Catholic Diocese of Owensboro decides to remain open Governor Andy Beshear's request is denied!

As we previously noted, Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY) wants all churches to close:

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear asked religious leaders across the state to immediately suspend all in-person gatherings at their houses of worship for the next three or four weeks, the president of the Kentucky Council of Churches said Thursday.

“This is a request from the governor, not a mandate, and it seems perfectly reasonable given the situation we are in with COVID-19,” said Kent Gilbert, who is also pastor of the historic Union Church in downtown Berea.

Gilbert was not certain if the request was until Sunday, Dec. 13 or through Dec. 13. The governor’s office did not immediately respond to questions about Gilbert’s comments.

If the Governor simply requested that churches ‘suspend’ services, then he was acting within his own First Amendment rights, his freedom of speech. If he attempts to order churches to close, then he is violating our free exercise of religion. His order restricting weddings and funerals to 25 or fewer guests, that we noted previously, is obviously unconstitutional, but the truth is that he got away with an order closing churches last March.

Well, at least some churches aren’t going to knuckle under:

Statement from Bishop William Medley, Diocese of Owensboro

November 19, 2020

“In consultation with the Archbishop of Louisville, the Bishops of Covington and Lexington, and the Catholic Conference of Kentucky, the Diocese of Owensboro wishes to announce that for the present the Catholic Churches of western Kentucky will continue our public worship as we have the last several months. Occupancy of churches will be limited to no more than 50%, facial coverings will be required, and physical distancing will be maintained.

This formula has proven successful and we cannot confirm even a single instance of transmission of the COVID-19 virus through our churches and our worship.

We acknowledge the difficult circumstances we face in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and appreciate Governor Andy Beshear’s efforts to promote the common good and the safety and well-being of our citizens.

We urge all citizens to heighten their observance of mandates. We pledge to continue our collaboration with healthcare officers throughout our region.

In regards to school closures, Governor Beshear yesterday (Wednesday, November 18, 2020) issued a mandate regarding the suspension of in-person classes for both public and private schools. In regards to our Catholic schools, this is disappointing as we believe that we have demonstrated that our schools can operate safely with the well-being of children uppermost in our actions.

In consultation with other Kentucky bishops, all Catholic schools in the state will comply with the governor’s directive.”

Regrettably, Bishop John Stowe, of the Diocese of Lexington, has not made any statement on the subject that I have been able to find, either in his Twitter feed or the Diocesan website. This is something that parishioners need to know. We normally get our parish bulletin via email on Saturday, so we should be notified in that if Mass is cancelled, but this is something the Bishop should have addressed and made public by today at the latest.

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Karens gotta Karen! Are we really living in a society in which snitching for violations of COVID-19 rules has become acceptable, become the norm?

If there’s such a thing as karma, this Karen ought to feel the wrath of it. If her neighbors know who she is, they should immediately ostracize her. From the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot:

Virginia Wesleyan women’s basketball player says she was dismissed from school over Thanksgiving gathering; others disciplined

By Ray Nimmo | November 19, 2020 | 8:31 PM EST

Multiple members of the Virginia Wesleyan University women’s basketball team have been suspended from on-campus housing and face additional sanctions from the athletic department, the college acknowledged Thursday.

Virginia Wesleyan did not say what those additional sanctions are, or how many players were disciplined. The school said an off-campus gathering led to the suspensions and said in a statement that “protocols have been repeatedly communicated throughout the campus community, athletic department, and all teams.”

Senior forward Makenna McSweeney, in graduate school for business administration, disputed that and said she has been dismissed from the school in the wake of hosting a Thanksgiving team-only gathering of 13 people.

The ‘gathering limit’ in Virginia is 25 people, not a lower number that people are used to reading about in other states. A gathering of 13 people did not constitute a violation.[1]I have presented this only for information purposes; this does not mean that I accept the idea that the government, at any level, can simply suspend our constitutional right to peaceably assemble. Thus, being punished for a gathering of fewer than 25 people must be a school rule, not the state’s.

An altercation between a neighbor and player occurred near the end of the two-hour event, and McSweeney said the neighbor’s subsequent call to the school led to the punishment.

So, what was the complaint? The article notes that “charges have been filed,” but does not give any details. What charges? Was the altercation physical or just verbal? And if the altercation involved only one player, that player not being Miss McSweeney, why is she the one being dismissed from VWU?

“We were called in (Wednesday), myself and the teammate that was in the altercation,” McSweeney said. “They said the neighbor had basically threatened to sue the school if we were not dealt with. The only claim they had is that we had a social gathering. The school can’t give us an explanation for (the punishment).”

OK, perhaps Miss McSweeney should have been dismissed from the college, for her atrocious grammar, but she is, apparently, being kicked out because she had her friends on the team over for a pre-Thanksgiving dinner. The officious little prick Karen got her way, getting the team members kicked out of their dorms, and Miss McSweeney expelled from school.

It should be noted that Virginia Wesleyan is the same college which fired forced professor Paul Ewell to resign after another officious little prick made public a private Facebook message in which he asked those who voted for Joe Biden to ‘unfriend’ him.

Is this really to where we’ve come? Are we really living in a society in which snitching for violations of COVID-19 rules has become acceptable, become the norm? The routine violations of our constitutional rights, the complacent acceptance of such by so many people, and the busybody nature of the “I’m going to tell on you!” over things which are not, and cannot be, crimes has led to far more damage to our society than the virus ever has.

References

References
↑1 I have presented this only for information purposes; this does not mean that I accept the idea that the government, at any level, can simply suspend our constitutional right to peaceably assemble.
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It’s so easy for state Governors to order other people to lose their jobs The Democrats always claimed to be the party of working people, but they don't seem to understand that working people need to work!

COVID-19 is serious, and can be fatal. But there are other things which can be fatal as well, homelessness for one, especially if you have minor children. And eventually, the no evictions and no foreclosure orders will have to be ended.

From the Lexington Herald-Leader:

As Beshear closes dining in, restaurant owners say ‘This is the breaking point’

By Janet Patton | November 18, 2020 | 4:37 PM EST | Updated: 6:31 PM EST

Gov. Andy Beshear’s new capacity restrictions on Kentucky restaurants and bars could not have come at a worse time, Lexington restaurant owners said Wednesday.

Pushed to the brink by the coronavirus pandemic and the economic hardships it has brought, many were facing a tough holiday season already with just 50 percent capacity and waning outdoor seating.

Beginning Friday, they will be limited to takeout and outdoor seating until Dec. 13. Beshear announced Wednesday that all indoor restaurant seating will be closed.

“This is the breaking point,” said Heather Trump, co-owner of Shamrock Bar & Grille and the Cellar. Most were hoping to hang on to the beginning of college basketball season, when business was expected to pick up.

Limited just to carryout, she said, “you will see 30 percent of restaurants never come back.”

There’s more at the original.

So, what happens to all of the people employed at restaurants and bars, people once again being laid off, and with a large percentage of those businesses never to reopen? If the businesses fail, the workers can’t be called back to work. And while restaurants fail all the time, and are normally replaced by other restaurants — I remember one building in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, which had a new restaurant every year for four straight years — who’s going to decide to take the risk to open a new restaurant under these conditions?

Of course, the Governor has ordered the halt of all in person classes in the Commonwealth, both public and private, meaning layoffs for many education employees — teachers’ aides, school bus drivers, custodians, security guards, guidance counselors and the like — and will force many working parents, primarily women, to either miss work, because they have to stay at home to care for their children, or pay for all day day care, if they can find it, leaving them working for nothing.

When these people eventually wind up on the streets, some of them are going to be just as dead as if they had died from COVID-19.

And now His Excellency the Governor wants to close the churches as well:

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear asked religious leaders across the state to immediately suspend all in-person gatherings at their houses of worship for the next three or four weeks, the president of the Kentucky Council of Churches said Thursday.

“This is a request from the governor, not a mandate, and it seems perfectly reasonable given the situation we are in with COVID-19,” said Kent Gilbert, who is also pastor of the historic Union Church in downtown Berea.

Gilbert was not certain if the request was until Sunday, Dec. 13 or through Dec. 13. The governor’s office did not immediately respond to questions about Gilbert’s comments.

If the Governor simply requested that churches ‘suspend’ services, then he was acting within his own First Amendment rights, his freedom of speech. If he attempts to order churches to close, then he is violating our free exercise of religion. His order restricting weddings and funerals to 25 or fewer guests, that we noted yesterday, is obviously unconstitutional, but the truth is that he got away with an order closing churches last March.

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Dictators gotta dictate! When state Governors get away with dictatorial actions once, they'll keep doing it until someone stops them

It is no surprise that those once drunk with power would again imbibe when there were no consequences for the previous drunken spells.

As we have previously noted, Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY) has gotten away with unconstitutional restrictions on people’s freedoms because the sheeple allowed him to do so. And now, proclaiming that COVID-19 is rising too fast, he is doing it again. From the Louisville Courier-Journal:

Gov. Andy Beshear unveils new coronavirus restrictions for Kentucky

By Grace Schneider and Emma Austin | November 18, 2020 | 4:19 PM EST | Updated: 4:42 PM EST

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear announced multiple new restrictions Wednesday as the state continues to see a surge in coronavirus cases, including:

  • All public and private K-12 schools will close to in-person instruction starting Monday through the end of the semester. The only exception is for elementary schools in counties outside the red zone, which may reopen on Dec. 7 if the school follows all guidelines.

Uhhh, since when does the state have authority over private schools?

Beginning on Friday and lasting until Dec. 13:

  • All restaurants and bars will close to indoor dining services. Outdoor dining is still allowed, with some limitations.
  • Gyms are limited to 33% capacity, and no group classes or indoor games are allowed. Masks are required.
  • Indoor gatherings should be limited to two families, not exceeding a total of eight people.
  • Attendance at wedding and funerals is limited to 25 people.

If the situation is so dire, I have to ask, why are gyms being allowed to open at all? After all, if dining inside a restaurant is too hazardous to be allowed, why isn’t working out inside a gymnasium?

Outdoor dining is still allowed, albeit with restrictions? The low for tonight in Lexington is forecast to drop to 36º F. While Friday, Saturday and Sunday have forecast highs in the low sixties, starting Monday it gets colder again, with daytime highs in the low fifties, and nightly lows in the thirties and, beginning Saturday the 28th, dropping below freezing. Might as well just close ’em down for everything other than take-out.

“Indoor gatherings should be limited to two families, not exceeding a total of eight people.” If the Governor is stating that gatherings should be limited, then he is simply exercising his freedom of speech to ask Kentuckians to do this. If there are some sort of executive orders mandating this, then they are in violation of our First Amendment rights of peaceable assembly.

And sorry, but weddings and funerals are (normally) religious events, and no Governor, no state, no President and no government at any level have the power to prohibit the free exercise of religion.

The General Assembly must, in its next session, this January, pass strict limits on the Governor’s emergency powers under KRS 39A. The Governor must never be allowed to attempt to restrict our constitutional rights, and in other emergency decrees must have his authority limited to only fourteen days without calling a special session of the state legislature to either pass laws to extend them, or revoke the orders.

The Governor, intoxicated with power as he is, had no intention of meeting with the legislature over his decrees:

Beshear was asked at Friday’s (July 10, 2020 — Editor) news conference on COVID-19 why he has not included the legislature in coming up with his orders. He said many state lawmakers refuse to wear masks and noted that 26 legislators in Mississippi have tested positive for the virus.

Translation: he did not believe the General Assembly would give him his way, so he was not going to allow them any say in the matter at all.[1]The state Constitution calls the legislature into session once a year, in January, for a limited time. The Governor may call a special session of the legislature at any time, but the legislature does … Continue reading

Fortunately, the 2020 elections expanded the already strong Republican control in the legislature; the GOP will have veto-proof margins in both houses of the General Assembly. But we really cannot simply wait for the legislature to act; Kentuckians need to protest now, to show the legislators that we are opposed to the Governor’s actions.
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Cross-posted on RedState.

References

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↑1 The state Constitution calls the legislature into session once a year, in January, for a limited time. The Governor may call a special session of the legislature at any time, but the legislature does not have the authority to call itself into session.
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Could the credentialed media get any more fawning of Joe Biden?

Sometimes I believe that this would be the more accurate spelling.

The Democrats and their willing allies in the media have attacked President Trump every way of which they could possibly think, reasonable or otherwise, and I suppose that it worked: they defeated Mr Trump in the 2020 election. Now The Philadelphia Inquirer is praising Joe Biden, and slamming the President, because Mr Biden has pets while Mr Trump does not:

Major and Champ Biden are about to make the White House warm and furry again

by Alfred Lubrano | November 16, 2020

Of the more than 500 million Americans who’ve ever lived, fewer than four dozen have ascended to the presidency.

It’s hard to relate to a group that exclusive. But pets that dig up the Rose Garden, chew tassled loafers in the West Wing, and have accidents under the Resolute Desk are the great equalizer: There are more Americans who live with animal friends — around 66%, studies show — than those who don’t.

“Pets humanize presidential figures who seem remote,” said Andrew Hager, historian-in-residence at the Presidential Pet Museum, formerly in Williamsburg, Va., now awaiting a new home. “Seeing the most powerful person in the free world romping on the floor with a dog looks so much more like you or I — a very different image than a person in a suit behind a podium.”

When he moves into the White House in January, the already avuncular President-elect Joe Biden will morph into Romper-in-Chief, cavorting with two German shepherds, 12-year-old Champ and nearly 3-year-old Major, who will become the first shelter animal to live at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Biden and his grandchildren picked out Major at the no-kill Delaware Humane Association in Wilmington in 2018.

For the last four years, the White House has been a kibble-free zone. Although President Donald Trump has been accused of emitting racist-rousing dog whistles, he hasn’t owned an actual dog.

Yeah, no bias there, huh?

My family have pets. We have had cats around for as long as I can remember, but until we moved to the farm, we never had a dog. Why? Dogs require a lot more room to run around, and until we moved here, we never had what I thought to be enough room. Now we have the room, and my wife brought home a puppy in May of 2019. This summer, another dog just moved in. No, we didn’t seek him, but he just moved in on his own.

We have an outdoor feeder for the cats, and that has meant that we’ve had ‘visitor’ cats show up to eat as well. Floyd, our 21-toed polydactyl cat, just showed up, skinny as a rail, charged in the house when I opened the door and immediately attached himself to my wife. Right now, we have four cats, two dogs and two chickens, plus any other critters which just show up. Living on the border of the Daniel Boone National Forest, animals abound here; we see deer on the property frequently, and I’ve found bobcat tracks. There are bears and coyotes in the forest, and the dogs regularly growl and bark when they sense creatures I cannot see in the National Forest.

So, I’m not exactly an anti-pet person.

Yet President Trump is.

“Donald was not a dog fan,” wrote the outgoing president’s first wife, Ivana, in her memoir, Raising Trump. “And Chappy [her poodle] had an equal dislike of Donald.”

Trump is believed to be the only president other than James Polk (in office from 1845 to 1849) not to have a pet, Hager said, adding, “Even the impeached, sad, racist, drunk Andrew Johnson fed flour to mice friends he kept.”

To which I say, “So what?”

Mr Trump, long before he became President, moved around a lot. He had his suite in Trump Tower in Manhattan, his golf course digs in New Jersey, and his resort home in Mar-A-Lago in Florida. Believe me, it was no fun at all moving four cats from Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania to the farm in Kentucky, and we only had to do that once; what would it be like having to move pets around between New York, New Jersey and Florida several times a year?

Pets are simply not part of Mr Trump’s lifestyle, and he recognized that, apparently early on. If he wouldn’t be a good ‘father’ for pets, then he shouldn’t have them, and chose wisely enough not to do so, even though it might have helped him politically.

In 2017, Trump reportedly said he was “embarrassed” by the cats, snake, and rabbit (Marlon Bundo, subject of two children’s books) living with Vice President Mike Pence and his family. The Atlantic reported that the menagerie inspired Trump to label the Pences “low-class” and “yokels.”

“Animals are so against the Trump Fifth Avenue brand,” said Hager, who credits Trump for being “self-aware enough” to realize it’s best he avoid bonding with all creatures, great and small. In February 2019, the famously germaphobic president said his getting a pet “feels a little phony.”

And he apparently wasn’t phony.

So now the media are fawning over Mr Biden’s dogs. He adopted from a rescue shelter! He might have named a dog in honor of his late son, Beau!

The Inquirer article wasn’t listed as “Lifestyle” or “Human Interest” or “Opinion.” It was presented as a straight news story. Mr Biden hasn’t even taken office yet, but The Philadelphia Inquirer is already working on his 2024 re-election campaign.
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Cross-posted on RedState.

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Professor “unfriended” by Virginia Wesleyan University University Would this have happened to someone harshly critical of Trump voters?

The obvious question is: how did his Facebook post get made public? From The Virginian-Pilot:

Virginia Wesleyan dean resigns after Biden Facebook post uproar

By Joanne Kimberlin | November 16, 2020 | 2:12 PM EST

A Virginia Wesleyan University dean whose Facebook post caused an uproar has resigned, according to a statement posted Monday by the university on its web site.

Paul Ewell got into hot water when a private post on his Facebook page went public recently.

The post asked anyone who voted for Joe Biden to “unfriend” Ewell, then went on to call all Biden supporters “ignorant, anti-American and anti-Christian” and accuse them of “corrupting” not only the election but “our youth … our country.”

The university said Ewell has since apologized.

VWU’s statement said Ewell resigned last week as dean of VWU’s Global Campus.

On Monday, the university said, he also resigned from his position as a professor of management, business and economics.

This isn’t really a surprise. What would have been a surprise would have been a university professor being fired resigning from his position because he’d “asked anyone who voted for Joe Biden to ‘unfriend’ Ewell, then went on to call all Biden supporters ‘ignorant, anti-American and anti-Christian’ and accuse them of ‘corrupting’ not only the election but ‘our youth … our country.'”

How was Dr Ewell’s Facebook post made public? The Portland (Maine) Press-Herald noted:

His post was made on his personal Facebook page, which has since been taken down. The page was set to “private” — open only to invited friends — but someone took a screenshot of the post and circulated it publicly on social media.

In other words, one of his “invited friends” decided to “unfriend” him in a way which cost Dr Ewell his job.

Had I received a ‘private’ Facebook post from someone telling me that if I had voted for President Trump I was a terrible person and should unfriend him, I would have done just that: unfriended him. But even though I can be an [insert slang term for the rectum here], I wouldn’t be [insert slang term for the rectum here] enough to do something to try to cost him his job.

Because, make no mistake about it, the guy who made a private post public was trying to get him fired. Unless you are horribly unaware of the political climate these days, you have to have heard of doxing and known why it is done. The person who did this to Dr Ewell is really the one who’s an [insert slang term for the rectum here].

I stated that Professor Ewell was fired, even though he technically resigned.

Stephanie Smaglo, a VWU spokeswoman, said that while the university “cannot speak to personnel matters, this incident is being addressed through our internal processes and policies.”

Yeah, that’s a firing. He was given the option to resign rather than being fired; that’s just how these things work.
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Cross-posted on RedState.

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Governors depend on officious little pricks to enforce their authoritarian decrees And the sheeple all say, "It is good."

On September 28, 1960, while Fidel Castro was giving a speech, bomb blasts rocked the steps of the Presidential Palace in Havana. Señor Castro then declared:

Comités de Defensa de la Revolución symbol. Con la guardia en alto translates to keeping your guard up.

We’re going to set up a system of collective vigilance; we’re going to set up a system of revolutionary collective vigilance. And then we shall see how the lackeys of imperialism manage to operate in our midst. Because one thing is sure, we have people in all parts of the city; there’s not an apartment building in the city, not a corner, not a block, not a neighborhood, that is not amply represented here [in the audience]. In answer to the imperialist campaigns of aggression, we’re going to set up a system of revolutionary collective vigilance so that everybody will know everybody else on his block, what they do, what relationship they had with the tyranny [the Batista government], what they believe in, what people they meet, what activities they participate in. Because if they [the counter-revolutionaries] think they can stand up to the people, they’re going to be tremendously disappointed. Because we’ll confront them with a committee of revolutionary vigilance on every block… When the masses are organized there isn’t a single imperialist, or a lackey of the imperialists, or anybody who has sold out to the imperialist, who can operate.

And thus were born the Comités de Defensa de la Revolución, Committees for the Defense of the Revolution. It was simple: every neighborhood would be organized, and every neighborhood would have people who would spy on, and tattle to the government, if someone was suspected of having counter-revolutionary thoughts.

Perhaps Governor Tim Walz (D-MN) didn’t have the Cuban spy committees in mind when he had the state Department of Health set up a ‘stay at home’ snitch line:

Reports to ‘stay at home’ hotline flood in; Walz says it is needed to relieve 911 workers

Republican lawmakers said the governor should close down the hotline.

Written By: Dana Ferguson | April 2, 2020 | 6:00 PM CDT

ST. PAUL — Minnesotans are nearly a week into a stay-at-home order aimed at limiting the spread of the coronavirus in Minnesota, and a hotline to report those congregating in large groups or failing to keep a sizable distance between themselves and others is generating hundreds of calls.

State emergency workers this week said they’d tracked more than 500 calls since the line got up and running last weekend. The stay-at-home executive order allows Minnesotans to go outdoors for exercise and activity if they observe social distancing requests, keeping at least 6 feet between themselves and those who aren’t members of their households.

And not all Minnesotans have been observing that rule, reports to state officials indicate.

The hotline came under fire this week, and Republican lawmakers over social media and in news releases called on Gov. Tim Walz to take down the hotline and email address used to report suspected violations of the order.

Republican lawmakers have objected to the hotline and said Minnesotans instead should aim to educate one another about the importance of not congregating in large groups and maintaining space between individuals in public spaces.

Of course, the Democratic Governor did not pull down the snitch line, and Channel 5 KTSP reported on August 14th that:

Since late March, the hotline has received thousands of reports of possible COVID violations, ranging from national companies ignoring the order to neighbors just telling on their neighbors.

Whole lot of Karens living in Minnesota, it seems. “(N)eighbors just telling on their neighbors,” huh?  I hope that the tattled-on neighbors find out who snitched on them, so that they can apply the appropriate punishment: shunning, ostracism and reputation-trashing. I would hope that when it’s discovered which Karens called the hotline, everybody in the neighborhood is informed of just who the snitches are.

I called that hotline just this morning, to make sure it was still up for this article; it is.

And now the Governor has announced new COVID-19 restrictions:

Gov. Tim Walz Announces New COVID-19 Restrictions, Earlier Restaurant And Bar Closing Times

By Esme Murphy | November 11, 2020 | 8:40 AM CST

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Gov. Tim Walz has announced new restrictions that target active spreaders of COVID-19 in an effort to bring the coronavirus under control, that will affect everything from bars and restaurants to family Thanksgiving plans.

“I feel like the guy in ‘Footloose,’ no dancing, no fun, no whatever. That is not my intention. My intention is to keep you safe so you can all dance a lot longer, and that our neighbors don’t put them at risk. But I recognize this is painful, it’s no fun,” Walz said Tuesday.

Walz said that the numbers are now growing exponentially in Minnesota, and that high deaths and hospitalizations are a predictable outcome if cases continue to grow in this manner.

“I wish I could say that this was unexpected, but it’s not,” Walz said. “I said back in March it would be a long, dark winter and that looks like what we’re headed into.”

Starting Friday, all bars and restaurants have to close dine-in service at 10 p.m and stay closed until 4 a.m. Indoor capacity is to be capped at 150 people, and may not exceed 50% capacity. Bar counter service is also going to be shut down, except at places that only offer counter service.

“Since the beginning of this pandemic, we’ve asked Minnesotans to make unprecedented sacrifices for the greater good. And they’ve done it. Because when times are tough, Minnesotans pull together,” Walz said. “Each step of the way, we’ve followed the best data available. These targeted, science-based actions will help get the spread of the virus under control so that we can care for those who fall ill, get our kids in the classroom, keep our businesses open, and get back to the activities we love.”

There is also a 10-person limit going into effect for all indoor and outdoor gatherings, and all social gatherings are limited to members of three households or less.

These restrictions include family gatherings for Thanksgiving.

For those who have noted my previous point that the restrictions in Kentucky are enforced not by the police but by local health departments, and have but small fines, let me point out that violating the restrictions in the Land of 10,000 Lakes are enforced by law enforcement personnel and is a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine up to $1,000 and up to 90 days in jail.

A misdemeanor is a criminal conviction, and could negatively affect someone’s housing, credit and employment opportunities. A student so convicted could lose his scholarship if he has one.

But that’s what these authoritarian governors consider you to be if you violate their executive decrees: a criminal. And that’s why Governor Walz set up his hotline: just like the over 670 Karens in Lexington, Governor Walz is going to depend on the officious little pricks to snitch on their neighbors.